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Almanac for Oct. 16, 2026

Today is Friday, Oct. 16, the 289th day of 2026. There are 76 days left in the year. Today in history: In 1962, the Cuban missile crisis began as President John F. Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photographs had revealed the presence of Soviet nuclear missile sites in Cuba. Also on this date: In 1758, American lexicographer Noah Webster was born in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1793, Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, was beheaded during the French Revolution. In 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown and his small force raided the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry in what was ...

Iran exposes an intolerable US vulnerability

Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill said that “wars are not won by evacuations,” and sometimes, he might have added, they are simply embarrassing. The United States hastily flew its B-1 bombers out of RAF Fairford in the U.K. for fear of a potential Iranian drone ...

Questions swirl about new WH press secretary’s resume

NEW YORK (AP) — The new White House press secretary is facing mounting questions about her background and resume as she transitions into her role as the public face of the Trump administration. Katie Zacharia has long described herself as a lawyer as she has worked to establish herself as a ...

Almanac for Oct. 15, 2026

Today is Thursday, Oct. 15, the 288th day of 2026. There are 77 days left in the year. Today in history: In 2017, actor and activist Alyssa Milano tweeted that women who had been sexually harassed or assaulted should write “Me too” as a status. Within hours, tens of thousands had taken up the #MeToo hashtag (using a phrase that had been introduced a decade earlier by social activist Tarana Burke). Also on this date: In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte, the deposed French emperor, arrived on the British-ruled South Atlantic island of St. Helena, where he spent the last 5 1/2 years of his ...

Rubio for president!

Back in my college days (American University, Washington, D.C.), required reading included the works of Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. Long after graduation they remained on my bookshelf. It was believed for generations that these men, along with philosophers Plato, ...

Supreme Court agrees to hear lawsuit seeking DOGE records

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear arguments in a watchdog’s lawsuit seeking public records about billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. The high court is intervening for a second time in Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in ...